The Full Story
NYU Grossman School of Medicine uses Gecko’s chatbot and live chat modules together with Slate as their CRM system via a weekly SFTP integration. This means that user interactions, whether through chat, email, or a recruitment event, are consistently logged and synchronized into Slate. By doing so, NYU gains visibility into prospective students before they submit an application, offering insight into how engaged each prospect is over time.
Multiple chatbots serve specific functions. One is dedicated to their graduate school (Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences), while two internal bots support their research community. They are also exploring the addition of a chatbot for clinical trial engagement, demonstrating how deeply Gecko is embedded in their operations.
Susanne Tranguch, Associate Dean, highlights how this integrated system enables them to track every single interaction with prospective students, even for individuals who have not yet applied. This granular level of tracking allows staff to gauge interest levels, estimate who is likely to matriculate, and ultimately make more data informed decisions throughout recruitment.
The personalized and passive nature of chatbots helps preserve candidate comfort and engagement. Students interact on their own terms, but the institution still collects useful data to monitor behavior.
Additionally, because every micro interaction (e.g. event attendance, website visits, chat inquiries) is logged, NYU can better assess the ROI of recruitment events and align communication strategies with measurable outcomes. For example, they analyze how many of the students who engaged via chat or attended fairs eventually enroll, then adjust future event strategies accordingly.